Two Surprising Skin-Trouble Culprits

Earlier this week, I had a deep-pore facial at Gentle Star Medspa in San Francisco. My esthetician, Craig Shishido, had turned me on to Jan Marini Bioglycolic, which has made a huge improvement in my skin. He has a reputation for being a perfectionist, and boy, does he earn it. You know how most facials involve a few minutes of extraction? Craig de-plugged my pores for two and a half hours.

While he worked, he gave a few suggestions for better skin. They're a bit out of the ordinary, so I wanted to share two of them:

Wear sunscreen everywhere. Craig praised me for wearing sunscreen every day, but when he was removing blackheads on my ears — I told you, he's thorough — he asked if I wore sunscreen on my ears. Erk. I'd never thought of that! "Start wearing it on your ears now," he said. "Otherwise, the skin gets a little crusty over time, and it'll look like a Krispy Kreme doughnut."

Don't be phone-y. The right side of my face has had subtle irritation lately. "This is where you hold your phone, right?" Craig asked. Bingo. Turns out, the phone was causing contact dermatitis. The solution: Buy a Bluetooth headset, or clean your phone regularly.